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Thanks for reading my first author newsletter. I’m hoping that with these letters I can interact with my loyal readers and bring them a bit of the “behind the scenes” life of a writer. It’s exhilarating, but frustrating. And pretty much everything in between. I also want to thank you for spending time with me. We’re only allotted so much and I appreciate the time you spend engaging with me.

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I’ll start with an introduction

I was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1957. Columbus at that time was an overgrown cow town. I remember watching electric buses (yes, electric) going down High Street; they had a pole on top that attached to an electric cable which ran down the street; as the bus proceeded, sparks flew off the pole. It was like a mini-fireworks. Fascinating to watch. Maybe someday we’ll get back to that form of transportation.

I was a voracious reader (a habit I acquired from my parents). When I was ten years old, I remember asking a librarian where I could find A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, a book which—I told her—I wanted to read. (A definite no-no; it’s a book that’s banned nowadays in parts of the country.) She looked at me suspiciously as she led me to the adult section. She did let me check out the book, but I had to promise her I would tell my parents about it as soon as I got home. (Yes, this is true, as is every word in this newsletter.)

When I was 12, I faked being sick for five days so that I could stay home and read Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. It was a novel that thrilled me. I became a Dostoevsky devotee and read everything about him that I could find.

I started writing seriously when I was 16 (I’d read so much by this point that I guess it was the natural next step). One of the first stories I wrote was called "A Sea Voyage." It’s the first story in my second collection, Blister and Other Stories, which was published last year. It amazes me that back in 1973 I was able to anticipate the Trump administration! (If you read the story, you’ll see what I mean—I added a link to it below.)

I married when I was 19. My friends told me I was crazy, and I probably was, but when the love of your life appears and bats her pretty brown eyes at you what else are you going to do? It all worked out; we’ve been married for 48 years.

One other thing it meant, though, was that I couldn’t do the starving artist thing—I had to get a job in order to put food on the table. So after college, I entered the corporate world (computers) and for the next 38 years I pretended to work. Okay, that’s not exactly true, but I turned down every managerial job or high-pressure project that I was offered, and spent as much time as I could writing.

I remember when I had to decide which way I wanted my life to go—this was shortly after I graduated from college and got my first job. I said to myself: do you want to climb the corporate ladder or do you want to be a writer? I wanted to be a writer, of course, but there was that “you need to eat” thing. What was I to do? I reasoned things out this way: You don’t want to be 60 and say to yourself: what if I kept writing when I was in my 20s, what might have I been able to accomplish? So I made a pact. I would do the minimum amount of work needed so that I wouldn’t get fired and I’d keep writing, but if I didn’t get a book published by the time I was 60 I would quit and resign myself to the corporate world.

And for a long time it looked like that was going to happen. I published a few stories along the way, but was turned down by every agent or publishing company I contacted (and there were many). And then, on my 60th birthday, when it looked like it was all over, I received an acceptance from Rogue Star Press out in sunny California. They wanted to publish my short story collection, A Betrayal and Other Stories. (It was 10 o’clock at night when I received the email, but that still counts.)
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Now, if I hadn’t received that email, would I have quit writing? Of course not. But it was a bet I had to make with myself to keep going.

I’m not sure what the moral to all of this is, I guess “do what your heart tells you to do, but be practical about doing it.” Something like that.

As a thank you for getting this far, here’s a link to the story I mentioned above: A Sea Voyage.

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That’s all for now

Thanks for reading and hit me up with questions/comments anytime (simply reply to this email). I’ll do my best to respond quickly. And feel free to forward this email to anyone who you think might enjoy my writing.

You can access my newsletters anytime, as well as a page with links to some of my favorite sites.

Best,
​Brian​
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